Chapter 26 #2
I wanted to scream, half naked and bound to his bed frame. But rather than give them a performance, I let the Governor of Valveron leave with his mercenaries, who’d lingered at Dupont’s side.
The curtains were left open, and I watched as the first peek of dawn crept over the horizon. Max would return home soon and find me missing. He’d spend all day looking for me, instead of resting for the duel this evening. He had lost his final die. And it was all thanks to me.
Three cars pulled out the drive, the echo of the revving engines finding its way to the bedroom.
I tried everything to get the chains loose—but it was no use.
He’d clamped the metal tight around my wrists, and my bones would break before the metal bed frame.
I’d have better luck chopping off my arm than cutting through wrought iron.
My wrists were bleeding by the time the sun was high over the city. Hunger pains cramped my stomach, and my entire body ached from my efforts to break the chain.
I looked down at my hands, studying the mechanism of the locks, the circumference of the clamp. If I could—no…
“Shit,” I whispered to myself, realizing it was the best plan I’d had all morning. If I could just dislocate the lower joint of my thumb, I might be able to squeeze out of one of the cuffs.
Exhaustion shook my body, and I took several gulps of air to steel my nerves.
I could do this if I just let my fear numb the pain.
After pulling so much with my wrists, I hardly felt them anyway.
I scooted closer to the metal headboard and pressed the bottom of my thumb into the metal plate I’d been tied to.
Pain lanced through my arm, so much I reared back and almost didn’t dare to try again.
But this was about Max’s life. This was about my mother.
It had been my mistake to come here without thinking of every possible contingency, without telling anyone what I was doing. This was payment for that mistake.
A moment of terrible pain for a life—for Max. It was an easy choice, just a difficult one to implement.
An hour must have passed as I tried to summon the courage. The hands on the clock over the hearth spun in circles. Sweat coated my skin despite the chill in the room, making me shake even more. But finally—finally, I screamed once more and slammed my thumb into the metal.
A sharp pop followed.
I couldn’t scream, couldn’t think clearly, couldn’t see beyond a white light that flared across my vision as hot pain seared up my right arm.
And to hell with it all—I wasn’t done yet.
The blood from scraping my wrists on the cuffs made a nice lubricant as I tugged the metal over my mangled hand. I cried out once more as it squeezed over the joint and pressed the dislodged bone deeper into my flesh.
When the cuff came loose, I collapsed on the other side of the bed, my hand hanging off the edge while the other side of the cuff dangled free. Pain rose and fell in waves, and I struggled to keep my eyes open. I needed to get up. Needed to find Max right away.
I forced myself to sit up with my good arm, tears blurring the room as it spun on a tilted axis.
My dislocated hand tucked into my chest, my opposite in a trembling fist, I took a faith-filled step toward what I recalled being the direction of the bedroom door when my feet snagged on the clothes they’d stripped from me and cast on the floor.
Before I could catch myself, I staggered a step, tripped over my sluggish feet, and hit the corner of a wooden dresser.
Pain bloomed behind my eyes. This time, there was no fighting the dark embrace that consumed me as I passed out on the Governor’s floor.
Dusk was a haze, clouding the room in reddened gold. Someone shook my shoulder. I opened my eyes to find Sophie, the girl I’d met in the basement, staring down at me. “You need to leave now, if you mean to escape.”
I blinked the room into clarity, realizing I’d been unconscious all day. The left side of my face above my ear was swollen and tender. Blood crusted my hand, and I cried out when I tried to move it.
“Can you…” I gasped. “Can you help me?”
“Only so much,” she whispered. “Boss can make me admit my lies. I could tell you the easiest way to get out of here, but I can’t help you escape. If he found out, he’d kill me.”
“What time is it?”
“Just after seven.”
I sat up straight. The fight was set to begin at any time now, and I was halfway across the city from the abandoned slaughterhouse. I used my able arm to push off the floor and stood, searching for the clothes I’d tripped over.
“There wasn’t much left. They tore most of your things,” Sophie explained, understanding what I was looking for.
“I brought you this. It was left here after… someone else.” She handed me a silk dress, simple in shape and roughly my size.
She helped me slip it over my head, minding my bloody hand and the handcuffs still attached to the other, even going so far as to help me put on my shoes.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked when I was covered and feeling more dignified.
She glanced back at the door. “I want to go home.” Her voice cracked. “I miss Ronnette and my sisters. They drink from me here, day and night, and I don’t know how much longer I have until I drop dead.”
“Come with me—”
“I can’t.” Tears spilled from her eyes. He’d compelled her to stay here then.
I could hardly feel beyond the throb in my wrist and the rage numbing the rest of my skin. I went to the mantel and snatched the dice, slipping two into my pocket—holding onto the Vitalis die.
I debated trying to heal my hand, but there wasn’t time to figure out such a complex piece of magic, even with my recent experience. Max could help me after the duel—I had to find him before it was too late.
“Show me the way out. Please.”
She nodded, clenching her jaw. “The dumbwaiter leads into the kitchens. I’ve already cleared the area for you to slip in and out.
When you get down to the main floor, take the swinging doors out of the kitchen, and you’ll find yourself in a servants’ corridor.
Access to the basement is the first door on the left.
You can’t miss it. From there, you can leave the way you came. ”
I followed Sophie into the hall, where she showed me the wooden door of the dumbwaiter in the wall. She opened it and beckoned me inside. “Quick, before the remaining guards do their rounds upstairs.”
I squeezed inside a box once again, hoping this would be the last in my lifetime.
“We just installed this. Completely safe, even if you’re made of porcelain.”
“Thank you, Sophie. I’ll come back for you.”
Her lips twitched in a hesitant smile. “I know.”
The door slammed shut, and she moved some kind of lever to send the dumbwaiter swiftly downward, but the landing was soft, as she had promised.
The door opened automatically, and I crawled into the kitchen in one piece, protecting my broken hand.
It was warm and smelled of fresh bread. I grabbed a roll to satiate the burning hunger in my stomach and continued to follow Sophie’s directions.
If Damien was linked to the Governor of the whole city, Max was in even more danger going into the duel.
What was the relationship between them? Damien paid for the bodies, and Dupont presumably kept Damien and his opium business safe from the police.
But it felt bigger than that. It couldn’t be a coincidence that Governor Therell had gone missing only to show up dead in my surgery as cargo for the smuggling network that Dupont seemed to be running.
Dupont was surely the last link in this chain. He had to be the buyer, even if he denied it.
That meant Damien must know exactly what was going on. If Max could win the duel, we could force him into a deal—his life for more information.
If Max lost, Damien would kill him. And I wouldn’t survive much longer with the city’s Governor and its most powerful criminal both hunting for me.
I glanced at a clock on the wall as I turned from the servants’ corridor to descend to the basement. Seven o’clock. The duel had begun, and I was still miles away. I just had to hope Max could survive until I got there.